"If it aint broke, make it FASTER!..."
November - Thursday nite the 15th we took bobs
car to Irwindales 1/8th mi. drag strip, on his 3rd pass something let loose.
Earlier in the week our buddy Dale Hicks was invited to an "invitation
only" day of drag racing at Irwindale, but Dale was going to Las Vegas
to race so he told Bob to take his place, well, since Bob blowed up his race
car, *I* get to go! [ see
pics! ] It was a GREAT day, Nicholas and i arrived around 9:30am and there
was only one other guy there, within the next hour more people started showing
up, alot of Mopars, chevy's, a few fords and imports. I was the first to get
teched and also made the first run of the day. Was up against a big block Mopar,
i killed him a the tree, my .728 light against his 1.436 light, i crossed the
line .0416 ahead of him [pic coming soon, got to get it scanned]. The first
4 passes Nicholas rode with me and thought it was great [my boy is 12 yrs old].
We left after the 6th run, went striaght over to bobs, an hour or so later and
after a short nap i realized i'd left some stuff on someone's trailer we were
parked next to when i was getting tech'ed. I went back to the track [4-5 exits],
re-entered the raceway, got my stuff and talked with the guy for awhile, ordered
a picture, sat in the stands for 15 minutes waiting for the picture to be processed,
got the pic [15$] and made 2 more passes and left again.
Since the last race at Rialto, the oil had been changed, 5qts 10-30 Pennzoil
[oops] and 2 qts 10-30 Mobile 1 synthetic, AC Delco filter #35L. A proper detent
[TV] cable was installed, i'm getting a little more 1st gear and crossing the
lights at 5500rpms just as it is shifting into 3rd, at some point im gonna want
to run it out to around 6500 and eventually try spinning it up around 6800 rpms
before shifting, AFTER i get my posi.
December - Not much to report, Xmas is in the
way. Changing my 180 thermostat to 160 here sometime soon. My car consistantly
runs around 195, id like to bring it down around 180.
Because of my SMOG problems and come to find out "inspection" problems
if i move to NY, i found a '67 Nova roller, mini-tubbed, striaght body, 8 3/4
Chrysler rearend w/4.56 gears, glass hood and deck lid. $2000. Might pick that
up and install my motor/trans.
Also toying with the idea of building a big block fuel injected blower motor
next year. Been looking at Hampton blowers. $4,000 for intake-to-injector complete.
MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY
NEW YEAR !!
SEE YOU AT THE TRACK IN 2002!
January - No tracks open. The Holley 800 needed cleaning and Bob was feeling experimental, since he blowed up his 396ci, we installed his 987cfm Holley on my motor. Now, ...either the 800 was THAT badly tuned or i dont know what, but the difference was night and DAY! We had also picked up a posi [finally] from Tom's House Of Camaro's, so now i have a posi but with the same crappie gears [ 2.73 ].
Febuary 03rd
- Some dood has a suite at Irwindale Speedway [the circle track]. The big-wigs
at the speedway wanted to use this doods suite so he bargained a Saturday of
private drag racing for him and his invited guests. So, this dood has a Mopar
and invites all his Mopar buddies, one of his buddies has a shop that our buddy
Dale [Matco Tool dealer] delivers to and Dale gets invited, however Dale is
racing in Vegas that weekend so he invites Bob to go in his place, however Bob
just blew up his 396ci at Irwindales Thursday nite Test-N-Tune, so ..... I got
invited to take Bobs place.
Nicholas and i had a great time. With Bobs carb and the posi, we were hoping
for 8.5's or 8.4's. When i got to the track the tech inspector told me if i
ran faster than 8.6 the helmet i had was too old and i would have to get a new
helmet before making anymore passes. I thought thats cool, i prolly wont break
8.6's anyway. My first pass was a 8.47 ! I snuck back in line, ...my 2nd pass
was a 8.25 !! Totally satisfied, we left after 1 more pass an hour later.
16th - If you've seen the pics of my exhaust, you
can see i have clearence problems, 'specially when im hard on the brakes trying
to slow down after going through the lights at 85 mph [1/8th mi.], so when some
friends at work told me they were going out to Fontana's 1/4 mile Drags, i almost
didnt go because i was worried about ripping out 2 feet of pavement with those
stoopid cut-outs i installed, but screw it, i went anyway. [grin] No mods to
the car, but it's the first time the new motor has been on a 1/4 mi. track.
The track was packed. We got a run every 2 hours! I stayed til 330pm and only
got 3 runs. That sucked, but still glad i went. The very first run resulted
with a 13.01 @ 108.70, missed the 12's by THAT much. Last run of the day i got
a 12.83 @ 108.96 ! I left satisfied.
March - On Sunday the 3rd, Rialto Airport Drags opened their gates for the first time in the 2002 season. Within the last few months they put down a 330' concrete launch pad and burnout box. When we arrived it was around 64* degree's and the wind was blowing pretty good so it was a beautiful clear day for Racing. I got a total of 6 runs, could of had more but i was satisfied with what i got. First round of trophy brackets i dialed in AND ran a 8.60, the other lane dialed in AND ran a 8.91 !! We both ran our indexes!! However, my .831 R/T lost to his .794, now THAT was a bracket race. I had had .639, .592 and a .593 lights earlier, but i was so paranoid about red lighting now when it counts! Oh well, it was great fun. The new concrete pad was hooking better than the old surface, but there wasnt any rubber down on it yet and stillwasnt as good as i'll expect it to be after a few more weekends.
April - At the Irwindale drags i
met a dood named Phil, he has a 3rd gen BBC Camaro, he also sold me a set of
S&W sub-frame connectors with a cross member, drive shaft loop and adjustable
torque arm. Also picked up my 750 Holley from The Carb Shop, its getting 810
cfm, 30cc accelerator pumps, 72/80 jets, so now Bob gets his 987cfm Holley back.
Check out my high-dollar, high-tech jack stands! The installation went pretty
smooth, all the holes lined up prettymuch except for one, and with a little
"jack-adjusting", even that one lined up ok. However, my passenger
side exhaust was now hitting the cross member. Back to Pepe's!
Had to get a tow since driving on the street with open headers
is illegal here in So. Calif, go figure, anyway, thanks to my buddy Kevin at
Sanders Automotive/Sanders Towing in San Dimas for helping me out. Anyhow, got
to Pepe's and explained the situation, got rid of the cut-outs while i was at
it, and again, Pepe's Muffler did a good job for a GREAT price and i was racing
later that day.
Arrived
at Irwindale Drags around 4:15pm, there was a film crew on the circle track
and they wouldnt start the drags until they were done. Two hours later, at 6:30pm,
they let us on the track. I was first in line again, by 10pm i'd gotten in 3
passes, my best was an 8.22 @ 90 mph. On my 4th and last run, i'd got a best
ever 1.94 60' [!!], but 75% of the way dwon the track, the other guy came across
the centerline and took out 2 timing boxes and scattered all kinds of broken
reflectors crap all over my lane so i had to abort the run. Nutz. Would have
been an 8.1x run. Oh well, next time.
Next set of mods is Lakewood trailing arms and Hotchkis panhard
bar.
